There is an increase in life stresses to earn more to obtain products and services that are more than we comfortably need. There is also waste and the environment to consider. As concern about nature and our social well-being are becoming more topical each year, we are beginning to realize this frantic consumer anxiety needs to be reigned in.
No more, please!
There are those huge meals that we get in restaurants that we cannot finish and are garbaged, or are unhealthy if we do manage to cram them down. Hardly a day passes where we are not coaxed to come in for more.
Downsizing our cars finally appears to be in our future but strong corporate marketing continues to dictate otherwise.
Now the scaling down of the consumer's most costly purchase, a home, may be in line for a sizable reduction in size and cost. Yet with so many making money in this business and with the encouragement to possess a 'Luxury Home You Deserve' change will be very difficult.The 2008 US financial and housing crisis and environmental considerations have many thinking smaller. It's about time; in many areas homes have dramatically doubled or tripled in size in several decades.
There is so much to be said for reversing the grander is better trend in home ownership, as it has been a strain on society and nature. But will the corporations allow it?
Can this long trend to oversized homes be stopped and reversed?
The consumer motive: acquiring status; impressing friends, neighbors and anyone else who might be impressed or look on with envy.
The basic purpose: an ongoing need to increase business profits and using strong advertising to accomplish the task.
A difficult problem: which corporations will relinquish sales and profits for the good of citizens and mother nature?
While a larger house might display status and success, real or borrowed, there is a heavy cost in resources, both natural and personal. Besides the higher original financial cost there are greater expenditures on taxes, heating, maintenance and repair. Big houses cost!
Overly consuming citizens really need to reconsider their purposes and increase their interest in the environment, the world as a whole, and their own well being. And government needs to do the job that governments are supposed to do.
So now and again lets review what is important in life, like stress free living with simple but fun, relaxed lifestyles. A conservative simple home containing a contented loving family sounds good.
Smaller Homes for Sustainable
Living a simpler, more earth-friendly life begins with the kind of home you wake up in every morning. If contributing to a sustainable future is important to you, one single change in your lifestyle can make the biggest difference of all: living in a smaller house. Just as any motorcycle is more energy-efficient than any car, small is beautiful when it comes to houses too.
The Benefits of Small Home Living
There is a plethora of purely personal advantages to living in a smaller home:
- There is less to clean, less to maintain.
- Small homes are inherently energy-efficient.
- Smaller homes are cheaper to buy and cheaper to build.
If you are building new, your upfront costs will be far less.
Because you won’t have large expanses to cover, you’ll be able to use finer materials and employ superior craftsmanship for your home: quality over quantity.
With limited space, you’ll be less apt to accumulate unneeded objects and useless clutter.
In a nicely designed small house, everything is cozy and convenient, helping life to run more smoothly. With the savings in time and money, you can devote more of your leisure to your social life and hobbies.
Source: From an earlier article in Green Living Ideas website published by Important Media. This is a decentralized, niche blog network, dedicated to covering those issues which are important to our collective and individual well-being, from humanity’s survival to human happiness.
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